Questions on Copyright & Trademark

Hey,

I've done a little digging on a few questions that came up in class. The first question was about Marilyn Monroe's image.

I found an article mentioning a battle between heirs of a celebrity's trademarked likeness and the copyright owners of the media. A famous celebrity can have their image be a trademark owned by their heirs.. but the person who took a photo of them might be the copyright owner of that photo. If a perfume company wants to use the image on their label - do they need permission from the trademark holder or copyright owner? Confusing! It sounds like there is a bill in congress to change the current laws..

The second question was about images of products "blurred out" on re-runs of television shows. It appears that this often happens when a television show has negotiated a deal for product placement. However, the rerun of the show may be on a different network than the original one, and with different sponsors. If the product placement is for Coke, but the show's sponsor is Pepsi, the product will be blurred out. Also, it could be that the show never struck a licensing deal with that company in the first place. Some products may not want to be associated with a particular tv show or movie. I found an article talking about how Coke did not want to be associated with the movie "Grease" and a poster had to be blurred out. It is also why in Ghostbusters they had to make up a fake product "The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man", because no real product wanted to be associated with that scene.

Like I said in class - intellectual property laws and rights can be confusing but interesting! Now I better quit blogging and go drink a cold, refreshing Coca Cola. Ahhhh... ;)